Refocusing

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Yesterday I drew up a chart on notebook paper and carefully plotted out the car schedule for the upcoming week. Last week we found out that we had a broken crankshaft pulley that comes with a large repair bill. Since finances dictate that the repair won’t happen for at least a week, a car sharing system needs to exist. I was dreading the moment all weekend. Oh, I knew that there wouldn’t be a lot of problems with the actual sharing…my family can be both generous and kind when it comes to this sort of thing. My trepidation came from the fact that I had a bad attitude about the whole thing. After dealing with the car issues for days, I was burnt out and wanting nothing more to do with the situation. Despite my best efforts, the car was busted, the money wasn’t there and now I was looking at a week of begging for rides and making the most of every trip out. I didn’t want to make a car sharing schedule…I just wanted the problem to be fixed! I was just grumpy.

Then I went to church. I knew that without a car I might have to miss service (Judson Memorial is too far away to walk) but on Saturday I tried my hardest to figure out a way there. My friend could swing by and bring me home, but she would have already been in church when service started for me, so she couldn’t give me a ride there. I spent a long time staring confusedly at the bus schedule before realizing that my options either involved transferring buses and getting there after service had started or staying on one bus and having to walk several blocks. Neither option sounded great, especially since it was forecasted to be stormy the next morning. Thankfully, my Aunt was able to give me a ride on her way to church and I was thankful to spend that time with her on the way. It made me realize that my attitude with the car had been very grumbly. I had thanked God for the few things that had gone right…but I hadn’t had a spirit of thankfulness over all.

Being thankful for everything seems illogical. Why would you be thankful when things don’t work out right? Why would you be grateful for a rough situation? There have been times in my life where I have taken these words to a very literal conclusion and have thanked God for broken shoelaces and spilled milk. That may be the intent of the verse here, but to be frank, that didn’t really help me. I felt as if I was lying to both myself and God. I didn’t really feel grateful for my broken shoelace but I said the words in hope that obedience would count for something. Now I think I view this verse as a reminder to me about the fact that I should always be praising God, no matter what is currently going on in my life. God is always worthy of praise and for me to think that my current situation makes that less true is the height of arrogance. It may be hard for me to see the good in my circumstances, but it isn’t hard for me to remember that God is in charge. I know that He loves me and He will take care of me. Those are things that I can always be thankful for in any circumstance.